'21 Jump Street' Tops US Weekend B-O

MARCH 19, 2012 - With its broadly-appealing premise, popular lead actors and well-executed marketing campaign, 21 Jump Street cruised in to first place at the box office this weekend ahead of two-time winner The Lorax.

Meanwhile, John Carter crashed in its second outing, and Casa De Mi Padre cracked the Top 10 despite opening in less than 400 locations. With only one major new release, though, this appears to be the first weekend of 2012 that will see a year-over-year decline.  

Coming off its disappointing US$30.2 million opening last weekend, there was still a chance that John Carter would hold up in the long-run and close above US$100 million. That hope was all but extinguished this weekend, as the movie plummeted 55 percent to an estimated US$13.5 million. On overseas markets, John Carter has done a bit better at a total of US$126.1 million for a grand total gross of US$179.1 million. For a movie made on a US$250 million budget, it looks like it has a long way to claw itself out of the red.

Here are the Top 5 North American B-O studio estimates for March 16-18, 2012 weekend, in terms of rank, (previous week ranking), Movie name (studio), Weekend takings in USD, (Cumulative gross, USD) and week on chart, courtesy of Boxofficemojo. (US$1=RM3)

1. (-) 21 Jump Street (Sony) $35.0 million ($35.0 million) 1

2. (1) Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (Uni.) $22.8 million ($158.4 million) 3

3. (2) John Carter (BV) $13.5 million ($53.1 million) 2

4. (3) Project X  (WB) $4.0 million ($48.1 million) 3

5. (6) A Thousand Words (P/DW) $3.7 million ($12.1 million) 2